


A Study in Sunshine

by LailaLiquorice



Category: Heathers: The Musical - Murphy & O'Keefe
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Drabble Collection, F/F, Not Canon Compliant, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-20
Updated: 2017-03-20
Packaged: 2018-10-08 05:11:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10379250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LailaLiquorice/pseuds/LailaLiquorice
Summary: A series of drabbles focusing around Heather McNamara.Some will be canon inserts, some will be pre-canon, some will be from the lovely and sunny 'everyone is nice and no-one dies' AU which I like to imagine in my head. See individual chapter notes for any trigger warnings.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Canon insert following the bathroom scene.
> 
> Trigger warning for suicide attempt. Could be interpreted as romantic or platonic McNamawyer, take your pick.

“No!”

Heather didn’t have time to see who the voice belonged to before she was tackled to the ground. A pill lodging in her throat made her cough violently and a couple fell out of her mouth, but she tried desperately to keep as many in her mouth as she could. A flash of blue caught her eye amidst the coughing, in which she felt at least one pill trickle down her throat, and she looked up into the wide brown eyes of Veronica Sawyer.

Shaking her head, she turned away from Veronica in the hopes that she’d leave her alone. “Suicide is a private affair,” she mumbled around the remaining mouthful of pills, wondering why she hadn’t swallowed them yet.

/ _You’re just as pathetic dying as you are living_ / Heather Duke’s voice sneered in the back of her mind and she squeezed her eyes shut.

A gentle hand prising the bottle out of hers brought her back into the present, and she risked turning back round to face Veronica. “If everybody jumped off a bridge, young lady, would you?”

“Probably.” She hated the tremor in her voice, the tears pricking at the corner of her eyes.

She winced as Veronica sighed, but she still held on to Heather’s hand. “If you were happy every day of your life, you wouldn’t be human. You’d be...” she paused “... a game show host.”

Heather stared for a moment, before she emptied the mouthful of pills into her hand. It wasn’t so much Veronica’s statement that made her reconsider, but simply her presence. She hadn’t been lying when she said Heather Chandler had been her best friend. She had been what held the Heathers together, held them aloft. Without her they were nothing. “Thanks for coming after me,” she said shakily, attempting a smile.

A look of utmost relief had crossed Veronica’s expression, and she returned Heather’s smile. “Oh, you’re welcome,” she said. As if it was nothing at all.

Heather didn’t know what snapped within her at that second, but something did. Four years’ worth of façade came tumbling down in less than a second and without thinking she flung herself into Veronica’s arms, sobbing uncontrollably. She only clung tighter when she felt Veronica’s arms around her back pulling her into closer, burying her head in the shoulder of her blue blazer.

“It’s ok, I’ve got you,” Veronica murmured somewhere close to her ear, holding onto Heather as she trembled in her arms.

For some reason, the comforting words only made Heather sob harder. “I miss her,” she choked out, finally admitting it for the first time.

Veronica’s grip on Heather intensified. “I miss her too.”

They could have stayed there for a minute or an hour, desperately holding each other together on the bathroom floor, but eventually Veronica pulled back. “I don’t fancy going back to that assembly. What do you think of skipping the day? We could go round mine and watch a movie.”

 “That sounds good,” she murmured with a half-hearted nod. She let Veronica help her to her feet, her hands still resting on Veronica’s arms since she didn’t feel quite steady.

Veronica smiled. “Come on then,” she said, walking Heather down the corridor and out the nearest door to her car.

The drive was short, since Veronica only lived around the corner. Her house was just as Heather had remembered from the one time she had been there; Heather Chandler had always preferred to have sleepovers in the comfort of her own home. It had been the day of Ram’s homecoming party that they’d all gone to Veronica’s house, and somehow Heather expected that the house would have changed along with everything else in their lives. But it was exactly the same.

“Lounge’s in there, make yourself at home.” Veronica said, pointing at the nearest door. “You pick a movie and I’ll grab some jiffy pop.”

Nervous about being alone in someone else’s house and still feeling oddly unsteady on her feet, Heather wandered into Veronica’s lounge. It wassmaller than Heather Chandler’s, and somehow that made it feel warmer and cosier. Spotting the VHS collection she started looking through, happy to discover that Veronica still had a good number of Disney films in her collection. Both the other Heathers had thrown theirs out not long after they started high school.

She jumped upon feeling a hand on her shoulder, spinning around to see Veronica looking at her with an air of concern. “Sorry, you didn’t reply so I guessed you hadn’t heard me.”

 Heather blinked with confusion. “Heard you say what?”

“I asked if you wanted hot chocolate,” Veronica said, frowning as she looked Heather up and down. “Are you ok? You’re swaying a lot, maybe you should sit down.”

Heather shook her head to say she was fine, but a sudden ache behind her eyes made her reconsider. Wincing, she raised a hand to her forehead and wondered why her body suddenly felt like lead. She inhaled sharply when the realisation hit her, meeting Veronica’s gaze as she said “The sleeping pills.”

Veronica’s eyes widened. “Shit. But you spat them out.”

She didn’t realise she was falling until she felt Veronica’s arm around her waist, just about managing to keep her on her feet. “I thought I swallowed one when I was choking. Guess I did,” she murmured, collapsing onto the sofa that Veronica helped her stagger to. Already she could feel her eyelids getting heavier, but she tried desperately to keep them open. To keep looking at Veronica.

“Heather? Oh God I can’t... stay with me. Heather!”

Veronica’s terrified eyes blurred into nothing as darkness crashed over her.

 

* * *

 

The first thing she became aware of was a hand holding hers. As soon as she shifted slightly the grip intensified, prompting her to slowly open her eyes and see who was clinging to her as if she was about to float away.

“Are you back?” Veronica asked, looking down at her with evident concern.

Heather hummed in agreement, just before all the memories came flooding back. The assembly, her confession, everyone crowding around her, the bathroom, the pills-

“Hey, it’s ok,” Veronica said upon noticing the anguished expression on her face. “You’re fine. You’re back.”

“I’m back,” Heather agreed somewhat groggily, her mind still foggy and Veronica’s face the only thing she could focus on.

“You’re back,” Veronica repeated. She went quiet for a minute, before asking hesitantly “Is that a good thing?”

Heather considered for a moment. A few hours she would have said no, she would have rather succumbed to the darkness and never returned. But the realisation that she still had a friend left in the world had altered her perception of life, and she was almost surprised when her answer came out simple and clear.

“Yes.”


End file.
